Bring Me The Head Of The Machine Gun Woman (Chile 2012)

Rating:*Review Date: 10/26/13
Cast: Matías Oviedo, Fernanda Urrejola

A low budget exploitation film from Chile that attempts to emulate the
"Grand Theft Auto" video game series. Santiago (Matías Oviedo) is a
pathetic loser who lives with his mom and wastes all of his free time playing
violent video games. A local gangster named Che Longana (laughably translated
as "Che Sausage" in the subtitles) puts a bounty of
$300 million dollars on the notorious assassin known as "Machine Gun Woman"
(Fernanda Urrejola),
and through a stroke of bad luck, Santiago finds himself in the middle of their
blood feud. Che gives Santiago 24 hours to deliver the Machine Gun Woman to him
or forfeit his life, which turns his world into a real-life video game. Will
he be able to survive long enough to complete his mission, or will it be
"game over" for our hapless hero?

Not surprisingly, the movie is terrible and the production values are
awful. While it was obviously shot on a very low budget, it's not clear to me
whether they took extra steps to intentionally make it look bad. I'm pretty
sure it was shot on video, and they added fake film scratches in post to give it
a more rugged 1970's look. It's distracting and not particularly effective at
evoking the desired response, because it still looks like video. Physical squibs
are mixed with digital blood effects to create unremarkable bullet wounds. The cinematography
is poor and the editing is absolutely atrocious. The director's favorite trick
is to place a chase camera behind and slightly above Santiago's char to give the
impression of a video game presentation. This gets old after about five seconds,
and they use this technique throughout the entire film. The presentation of
Machine Gun Woman is laughably tacky and hopelessly inept. She wears garish makeup
and parades around in trashy lingerie with all the presence and appeal of a cheap
stripper. This isn't the actress's fault, however, as she gives a strong and
convincing performance that's far better than the story deserves. Likewise, even
though Santiago is a dislikable creep, Matías Oviedo delivers a solid and sympathetic
performance, and his utter helplessness comes across as all too real.

Overall, the film feels like an amateur attempt by someone trying to emulate
the style and tone of Quentin Tarantino, which is almost always a recipe for
disaster. It attempts to balance its overly violent content with tongue-in-cheek
humor, but it fails to be entertaining. The forced sexualization of
Machine Gun Woman downplays her potency, which negates the intended effect. Unless
you're looking for cheap thrills to satisfy the mentality of a thirteen year old
boy, you're probably better off avoiding this one.